Publications

08 May 2025
Blog Post

Startup Roots and Engineering Ambitions: Lizzie Matusov (MS/MBA 2022)

constantly searching for ways to optimize how our teams collaborated to solve problems. On weekends, I’d bring home ideas and think about whether they could be applied more broadly across different organizations. As I built conviction... View Details

February 2016
Article

After The Break-Up: The Relational and Reputational Consequences of Withdrawals from Venture Capital Syndicates

By: Pavel Zhelyazkov and Ranjay Gulati

Traditional research has long treated reputation as an egocentric attribute, typically described as an intangible asset directly shaped by the focal actor's track record. We argue, however, that reputation is dyadic: that an actor can have different reputations with... View Details

Keywords: Network Formation; Network Search; Venture Capital; Syndication; Networks

February 2024
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B14): San Jose Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Hailey Chen and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Climate; Climate Impact; Innovation; Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Investing; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; Innovation and Invention; United States; San Jose

July 2014
Article

Smart Money? The Effect of Education on Financial Outcomes

By: Shawn A. Cole, Anna Paulson and Gauri Kartini Shastry

Household financial decisions are important for household welfare, economic growth and financial stability. Yet, our understanding of the determinants of financial decision-making is limited. Exploiting exogenous variation in state compulsory schooling laws in both... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Investment; Decisions; Behavior; Financial Condition

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May 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Contractual Innovation in the UK Energy Markets: Enron Europe, The Eastern Group, and the Sutton Bridge Project

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Peter Tufano

In December 1996, Enron Europe and The Eastern Group were on the verge of signing an innovative transaction in the utility industry. Eastern was going to buy a long-term option to convert natural gas into electricity from Enron, thereby giving it the economic right to... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Infrastructure; Supply and Industry; Corporate Finance; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Provident Life and Accident Insurance: The Acquisition of Paul Revere

By: Mihir A. Desai, Frank Williamson, Mark Veblen and Yuming Zou

Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. has made an initial bid to acquire a primary competitor, Paul Revere, from conglomerate, Textron. The due diligence process uncovers a significant block of problematic disability insurance policies. Provident is forced to assess... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Financial Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Policy; Investment; Business Strategy; Cash Flow; Price; Bids and Bidding; Financial Reporting; Business Conglomerates; Insurance Industry; Service Industry

13 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 13

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52729 May 2017 Judgment and Decision Making Is Saving Lives Your Task or God's? Religiosity, Belief in God, and Moral Judgment... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Supplement

Celgene (B)

By: Malcolm Baker and Emily McComb

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Public Market Investing; Celgene; Revlimid; Hedge Fund; Growth Stocks; Valuation; Investment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Analysis; Biotechnology Industry

June 1996
Article

Risk-Based Capital Requirements and the Riskiness of Bank Portfolios

By: Brian J. Hall and Steven R. Grenadier

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Capital; Banks and Banking; Investment

Web

Institute Associates - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

international trade, finance, investment and competitiveness. Most recently much of his work has centered on the regionalization of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, as well as the... View Details

2014
Article

The Growth and Limits of Arbitrage: Evidence from Short Interest

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Adi Sunderam

We develop a novel methodology to infer the amount of capital allocated to quantitative equity arbitrage strategies. Using this methodology, which exploits time-variation in the cross section of short interest, we document that the amount of capital devoted to value... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Financial Instruments; Capital Markets; Investment

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24 Apr 2014
News

SHE builds confidence, promotes education, and creates jobs

menstrual pads by sourcing local, inexpensive raw materials, such as banana fibers. Launched in Rwanda, the businesses are owned and operated by women and can be replicated wherever need exists. The result... View Details

Web

VBHCD Initiative - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Value-Based Health Care Delivery Read more about Measuring Costs Action Research The Harvard Business School VBHCD team helps provider sites: Implement time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to measure costs over the full care cycle, View Details

2021
Working Paper

Impact Accounting for Product Use: A Framework and Industry-specific Models

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

This handbook provides the first systematic attempt to generate a framework and industry-specific models for the measurement of impacts on customers and the environment from use of products and services, in monetary terms, that can then be reflected in financial... View Details

Keywords: Impact Measurement; Product Impact; Customer Welfare; Environment; ESG; Product; Customers; Well-being; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Accounting; Financial Statements; Analysis; Framework

SSRN

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18 Feb 2020
Working Paper Summaries

A Preliminary Framework for Product Impact-Weighted Accounts

Keywords: by George Serafeim, Katie Trinh, and Robert Zochowski

April 2012
Article

The Predictive Value of Accruals and Consequences for Market Anomalies

By: Francois Brochet, Seunghan Nam and Joshua Ronen

We revisit the role of the cash and accrual components of accounting earnings in predicting future cash flows using out-of-sample predictions and market value of equity as a proxy for all future cash flows. We find that, on average, accruals improve upon current cash... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Value; Equity; Markets; Cash Flow; Information Management; Accrual Accounting; Earnings Management; Corporate Governance; Stocks

Article

The Collapse of First Executive Corporation: Junk Bonds, Adverse Publicity, and the Run on the Bank Phenomenon

By: S. C. Gilson, H. DeAngelo and L. DeAngelo

In April 1991, regulators seized the major subsidiaries of First Executive Corporation (FE), an insurer that invested heavily in junk bonds. During the junk bond market turmoil of 1989–1990, adverse publicity fueled a bank run at FE, forcing a $4 billion portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Bonds; Banks and Banking

July 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

McKinsey & Co. - Protecting its Reputation (A)

By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague

On Tuesday March 15, 2011, all 1,200 global Partners of McKinsey & Co. gathered at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center near Washington, DC for their annual Partners' conference. The atmosphere was tense as Partners, in addition to their normal agenda,... View Details

Keywords: Board; McKinsey; Consulting Firms; Risk; Risk Assessment; Partnerships; Insider Trading; Confidentiality; Personal Investing; Reputation; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Consulting Industry; United States; California

May 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Unilever's Lifebuoy in India: Implementing the Sustainability Plan

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Unilever's new Global Brand VP must not only revitalize Lifebuoy soap's sagging market performance, but simultaneously impact the health of one billion people worldwide. The latter challenge comes from Unilever's new CEO who has introduced the Unilever Sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Management; Corporate Social Responsibility; Strategy Implementation; Marketing Strategy; Mission And Purpose; Change Management; International Business; Global; Fast-moving Consumer Goods; Soap; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Environmental Sustainability; Global Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Health Industry; India